Annotated Bibliography #3

Hannon, Sharon M. Punks: A Guide To An American Subculture. Santa Barbara, USA: ABC-CLIO, 2009. Web. Accessed 19 May 2011.

Chapter One of Sharon Hannon’s book Punks: A Guide To An American Subculture seeks to answer the highly contested question of what is punk? In this chapter, Hannon offers more of a historical look at punk and its sub-genres than a strictly theoretical one, but through that historical approach she is able to identify and discuss the different ways punk has been understood and defined over its lifetime. In the beginning of the chapter Hannon demonstrates how everyone has a different understanding of what constitutes punk and this in turn makes it virtually impossible to define what is actually punk and what is not. Some of us define punk by the political ideologies it may embody, others identify it by its visual aesthetics while some simply define it by the way the music sounds. (2) This way of understanding punk also shows that no single viewpoint is inherently correct: the person who believes The Sex Pistols’ God Save The Queen (a song that expresses anti-monarchist sentiments) embodies all that punk is, is not necessarily more correct than the 15 year old kid who believes My Chemical Romance’s Vampire Money (a commentary on bands ‘selling out’ to be featured on the Twilight soundtrack) is punk. Hannon’s chapter is probably the weakest of the three resources I’ve discussed on here as far as theoretical and critical ideas of punk go, however, I still feel this chapter will be useful as its factual, historical structure gives important background information for me into this subculture and the varying viewpoints it presents expands my understanding of punk and has given me some new ideas to work with.

Annotated Bibliography #2

Haenfler, Ross. Straight Edge: Clean-Living Youth, Hardcore Punk and Social Change. United States: Rutgers University Press, 2006. Web. Accessed 11 May 2011.

Chapter Eight of Ross Haenfler’s book Straight Edge: Clean-Living Youth, Hardcore Punk and Social Change focuses on the commercialisation of punk, and in particular the straight edge movement, over the past 10-15 years. In this chapter he poses the argument that punk is no longer an underground movement and looks in detail at the way this commercialisation has affected the identities, practices, values and so forth of members of this subculture, concluding that commercialisation hasn’t “killed” the movement (186) but has made some obvious changes. To do this Haenfler looks at the way the media has incorporated punk into the mainstream culture industry and I think most importantly for my essay, at the impact the internet has had upon the punk scene. I feel Haenfler’s discussion of the impact of the internet will be highly useful for my essay and the fact that this chapter is so heavily focused on contemporary ideas of punk makes it stand out amongst other readings I have encountered which seem to have a heavier focus on the subculture during the 1970s and 1980s. While I still feel Moore’s article will be an invaluable resource, Haenfler’s chapter definitely picks up where Moore’s fell down with its minimal discussion of the current state of punk. My main concern with this chapter is that it does focus more on straight edge and hardcore than straight punk rock. However, in a contemporary sense where there are many debates online about what is and isn’t punk, it’s definitely important to take a look at these movements as well.